in page 179 of to kill a mockingbird it says “the concrete pillars supporting its south roof were too heavy for its burden”. the pillars could symbolise the fact that the racist people have started to change their minds about whether racism is the right way to do things because it says at the end of the sentence “there burden” the definitions of burden are :
a. Something that is emotionally difficult to bear.
b. A source of great worry or stress; weight
this could mean that empathy has started to affect them due to the fact that they see racism every day in the streets.
in the second paragraph it says “rusty unreliable instrument” this could symbolise how racism is because it will only work when peapole are uneducated.
it could also mean that the world is changing and that people of the old world are trying to hold there world together although there world is unreliable while people of the new world built the court to spite peaopole who are still trying to hold on to the old world.
the sentence that the pilliars are too heavy for there burden could mean that peopole around that time were less caring about the slaves than in the future.
March 2, 2015 at 12:58 pm
I’m not so sure about this Keenan – aren’t the concrete pillars from the past – the time before the 19th Century with its slavery and moral ambiguity?
March 24, 2015 at 8:35 pm
Hi Keenan
This is a very good analysis on the concrete pillars symbolism in to kill a mockingbird, However it may be more developed if you talk about the concrete pilliars in relation to the society in which the characters live in, for example “rusty unreliable instrument” could this show the people of maycomb are reluctant to change their traditions and their not so modern views like their racist views which arent as accepted in society in today world, apart from this I like the way you have shown 2 different ways to interpret the term ” burden” used in the text, despite this well done and keep the great work up.
March 26, 2015 at 1:45 pm
“the racist people have started to change their minds about whether racism is the right way to do things because it says at the end of the sentence “there burden” i disagree with this. The people did not change their minds and an example of this would be Mayellas father reacting to seeing Tom Robinson in his house with his daughter.”mean that peopole around that time were less caring about the slaves than in the future.” and“the concrete pillars supporting its south roof were too heavy for its burden”. are not working together. The burden is too heavy for the pillars( is now ) not mentioning the future .
March 27, 2015 at 10:50 am
I my opinion on have went wrong with the pillars bit although this is a great piece of work, you could try and work on your grammar.